For an average person, receiving an unsolicited call can be an annoyance and a frustration, especially if the recipient of the unsolicited call had previously indicated to the caller that he or she does not wish to receive future calls from the caller and/or if the recipient had previously put the telephone number of the unsolicited caller on a no-call list.
Currently, existing methods for protecting the average person against such unsolicited calls include call screening, anonymous call blocking, and caller compliance with a national “Do Not Call” list. However, such methods do not deter persistent unsolicited callers. Such callers can simply ignore Do Not Call lists, use a bank of phones having different telephone numbers from which to make unsolicited calls, employ non-anonymous caller ID names, and/or target other average people, who might not utilize any of these protective methods.
In addition, although national no-call lists are used, such lists are common to everyone within the nation. There do not appear to be any service providers that presently offer a subscriber a personal no-call list that allows the subscriber to add, remove, or otherwise modify/manage his or her personal no-call list, which is separate from the national no-call lists.
In some cases, autodialers or robocallers might be used to initiate such unsolicited calls (which might include voice calls or text messages, or both) in an automated manner (either sequentially and/or in a random fashion). In some instances, originating telephone numbers, as identified by CallerID systems at the destination telephone, are spoofed or unavailable, making identification of the actual originating offending party difficult or impossible for the user. In some cases, innocent third parties, whose telephone numbers have been spoofed by the offending party, might be needlessly punished.
The embodiments disclosed herein are directed toward overcoming one or more of the problems discussed above.